Horton Hears a Who
Horton Hears a Who!, also known as Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! is Blue Sky Studios' fourth feature film, produced by Blue Sky and released to theaters by 20th Century Fox in the United States on March 14, 2008. When a kindly elephant hears a faint cry of help from a floating speck of dust, his attempts to protect the tiny particle cause his neighbors to question his sanity in this animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss' classic 1954 children's book of the same name. Plot In the Jungle of Nool, a drop of water falls, off a leaf, which starts a chain reaction, where eventually a small flower is bended, by a bur. The result, is a tiny dust speck being pushed off the flower (which is straightened back up), and into the jungle. Meanwhile, a caring, imaginative elephant named Horton (Jim Carrey), the jungle's nature teacher, takes a dip in the pool. The speck from earlier suddenly floats past him in the air, and he hears a tiny yelp coming from it. Believing that an entire family of microscopic creatures are living on that speck, he places it on top of a pink clover that he holds in his trunk. Horton finds out the speck harbors the city of Who-ville and all its inhabitants, led by Mayor Ned McDodd (Steve Carell). He has a wife, Sally (Amy Poehler), 96 daughters (Selena Gomez) who all have names that start with the letter H, and one teenage son named JoJo (Jesse McCartney), who, by Who custom, is next in line for the mayoral position. JoJo does not want to become mayor, which leads him to become sullen and he almost never talks, despite Ned giving him attention. The Mayor finds out from Dr. LaRue (Isla Fisher) that Who-ville will be destroyed if Horton does not find a "safer more stable home," so Horton resolves to place the speck atop Mt. Nool, the safest place in the jungle. This outlook earns Horton nothing but ridicule from the inhabitants of Nool, especially from the strict de facto leader of the jungle community, the Sour Kangaroo (Carol Burnett), who tries to get Horton to give up the speck, so as not to put supposedly ridiculous ideas into the heads of the children. Ever faithful to his motto, "A person's a person, no matter how small," Horton refuses. Also taking force toward Horton are the Wickersham brothers (Frank Welker and Dan Castellaneta), a group of bullying monkeys who love making misery. When the other Whos become suspicious of the various phenomena in their world (actually caused by Horton's various mishaps during his trek through the jungle), the Mayor finally reveals the truth, but at first, the Whos do not believe him any more than the animals believe Horton. In the meantime, the Kangaroo has enlisted a nefarious buzzard/vulture named Vlad Vladikoff (Will Arnett) to get rid of the speck by force. Vlad manages to steal the clover with the speck on it away from Horton, causing a group of heroic animals known as the Lion Guard to arrive when Horton calls for help. A chase ensues at the mountains, with Horton and the Lion Guard chasing after a fleeing Vlad. Luckily, right before Vlad can drop the clover with the speck on it into a valley full of nearly identical clovers, the Lion Guard tie some vines found by one of the members of the Guard, an honey badger named Bunga (Joshua Rush) who is the bravest, connected to a boulder (a large rock) around Vlad's legs. Another member of the Guard, an egret named Ono (Atticus Shaffer) who is the keenest of sight, then takes the clover with the speck on it away from Vlad and safely delivers it back to Horton. Afterwards, the Lion Guard launch the boulder, causing Vlad to fall hundreds of feet off the cliff and into the valley, being dragged along by the boulder. However, before the boulder can land on him, the leader of the Guard, a lion cub named Kion (Max Charles) who is the fiercest and has launched the boulder using the Roar of the Elders, and yet another member of the Guard, a hippopotamus named Beshte (Dusan Brown) who is the strongest, leap off the cliff, and while Beshte uses his strength to keep the boulder from falling whilst sitting on Vlad, Kion bites onto Vlad's neck, letting go of it once Vlad is no longer able to breathe. Kion and Beshte get off the now-dying Vlad as the boulder crushes him, killing him and sending him underground. Once Kion and Beshte have climbed back up on the cliff, they and the rest of the Guard reassure Horton that he and the speck are safe. Horton thanks the Lion Guard, who go back to the Pride Lands to resume their duties. After Horton checks on the mayor, his family, and the other Whos to see if they're all safe, the latter two groups realize that the mayor is not crazy, and they all tell Horton they believe in him. Upon hearing from Mrs. Quilligan (Jaime Pressly) about Vlad's death at the hands of the Lion Guard and that Horton still has the speck, the Kangaroo decides to rally the jungle community into forming a hateful mob who attack Horton and corner him. Kangaroo offers Horton a mocking ultimatum: give up the speck and "admit" he was wrong and that she was right, or else, he will face the wrath of the people. However, Horton refuses, and makes a heartfelt speech that clearly touches the animals. Kangaroo won't hear it, and orders the animals to rope and cage him, and that the speck be burned in a pot of boiling "beezlenut" oil, shown to have acidic propeties. The Mayor enlists all of his people to make noise by shouting, "We are here," as well as playing a variety of instruments, so the animals can hear them. Horton is caged, and Kangaroo takes the clover and drops it into the oil. At the last minute, JoJo grabs the horn used to project Horton's voice, runs up the highest tower and yells "Yop!" Just before the speck hits the oil, Jojo's sound finally causes their noise to be heard. Hearing the Whos' cries, Rudy (Josh Flitter), the Kangaroo's son, grabs the clover in the nick of time and returns it to Horton, refusing his mother's orders to return to her pouch. The animals finally realize the atrocity they almost committed. While being praised for his integrity by his neighbors, Horton sees the Kangaroo looking miserable for her behavior, and decides to forgive her and offer her his friendship, which the Kangaroo accepts. She and the animals resolve to join Horton in returning the clover to Mount Nool. Here the people of Who-ville and the animals of Nool gather in song and recite the chorus from Can't Fight This Feeling Any More, and begin walking the final stretch to the mountain. In the final shot of the film, the camera zooms out, revealing that along with numerous other worlds in our universe, the jungle of Nool is just one speck among numerous others.